Monday, June 11, 2007

We've Hired a Children's Pastor!

Yep, Pastor Andy McGee will join our team this August. Andy just graduated from Trevecca Nazarene University this spring and will be moving here to begin his Masters of Divinity at Nazarene Theological Seminary.

Andy has been a leader in a children's ministry program at Trevecca Community Church. Andy lead a group of Kindergarten and 1st graders, so he's familiar with an age group that is well represented at TFC. Andy is very creative, often building sets and props to help his classes learn a Bible story. And he did all of that in a portable environment! He knows the "joy" of set-up and tear-down. It has been a long search but I'm so excited about having Andy join our team.If you want to learn a bit more about Andy, you can check out his myspace page.

I realize this sounds crazy, but I've gotta be honest - we can't afford a children's pastor! At least, not yet and not out of our regular budget. But the amazing thing is that we've been able to raise enough money to fund this position for two years. Before we launched in 2005, we raised more money than we needed, so we put that money in savings and prayed about how to best invest the money. We decided the best investment would be staff and the best staff would be a children's pastor. We then raised $5,535 from our 7 over 7 campaign. All of that money combined will fund the children's pastor position for the next two years.

I'm confident that in making this hire we are following God's leading for our church. It's been a long journey to find the right person but I know we're being faithful with the resources God has given to us.

I also know that we're going to need to grow financially over the next two years. In order for us to continue to fund this staff position and provide resources for a quality children's ministry, our annual income needs to have increased $25,000 by June of 2009. Yes, that seems like a lot of money, but it's no sweat for God.

As we jump into this new level of ministry, I'm feeling a lot like I did two years ago when we were getting ready to launch this church. I was jumping out into the unknown as I quit my part-time job at FedEx and trusted God for my salary. I decided it was "sink-or-swim" time. Well, we swam - but God is now pushing us out into deeper waters again. The future is unknown, but my confidence is in God. We are God's people and TFC is God's church. God will empower his people to be obedient and through that obedience, He'll provide all of our needs.